ic Welcome to Springsvale, AZ(IC)

[Ecalsneerg]

"Um," said Equinox, blinking quickly. "A... say what now?" She wasn't sure how to respond to that. Dead things weren't really her strong suit. Especially not when they were a lot of dead things making one dead thing.

 

"This... isn't my area. What's our game plan here? I can't even see it." She glanced at Nick, took in where he was looking, and slowly, gingerly took a couple of steps back. "Does it know we know it's here?"

[Supercape]

Pitch roared down the road at top speed. Normally, on her supercharged bike, that was fast. 

 

Right now, it was fuelled buy infernal oil. It had grown even more monsterous, smoking, metal and chrome, fangs, red fire...and it was tearing down the road like a rocket. Which, in fact, was pretty much what it was, thanks to a roar of fire from the transformed exhaust. 

 

She clung onto the bike like a limpet. At this speed, it was pretty much all she good do just to hang on and keep going. 

 

The smoke could be seen for miles, and she tore a black streak through the desert, only stopping when she reached Nick and Equinox, her engine roaring like the pits of hell. Again, not entirely unreasonably. 

 

"Guys. This snake? last in a long list. Keep pestering the town, but normally get lost upriver. This is the first one that got toasted. And then there is the...hey, what you looking at?"

[trollthumper]

"Well, it is looking at the general vicinity of us," Nick said, not taking his eyes off of the spirit snake, "so it might be looking at either us or its dead snake buddy." He was still trying to figure out how something like this might have come together - could it be some great spirit of life, the accumulation of all the forms of creation? If so, why did it choose to materialize as a giant snake thing?

As Pitch reappeared, Nick answered her question. "Giant spectral snake thing, like a big collection of the entire animal kingdom in serpent form. And it runs... it runs..." Nick's eyes chanced down to the river that ran through Springsvale. "It runs along the river. Pitch, what forms did these other pests take? And Equinox, how good are you with ley lines?"

[Ari]

GM

In apparent answer to Equinox's question, the column of life abruptly split, several great spirals of creation sliding noiselessly back into the ground, while the core remained, its head of microbes splitting into three children that arranged themselves to better oversee the doings of the newcomers.

The silvery cords gave no other sign of movement, which destroyed the illusion of life pretty thoroughly, but added a certain air of vigilance. A faint coppery tang hung in the air where they stood.

'Don't say I never warned you, Cantos. I mean it, we'll all likely be seeing the Great Shadow soon, and if you perjure me at the silent gate I'll never visit you. No matter where they throw that ungainly soul.

I shan't even bother telling you to run or try to talk sense to it, it's probably too stupid to understand anything but violence...which is always rather nice...'

[Supercape]

GM

 

Tazel, you always warn me against doing the right thing, you toad!

 

But don't worry. I think Violence is coming...

 

Pitch put one boot on the seat of her Motorcycle, wrapping an arm around it in a lazy fashion and turning her red eyes to Nick. 

 

"The River. Sounds 60s, man. Cosmic, ya might say. Reminds me of that crazy dude the Radical" she mused. She knew enough about counter culture, working for a Rock Magazine. 

 

"As for who or what when up there, I guess I don't know. Looks like everything with legs goes up there. Guess we only get to find out when we go up there too...I just hope in ain't a one way ticket...Cos' I aim to come back..."

 

No matter what ya say, Tazel! I'm coming back. And so, for that matter, are you!

 

Once more she poured some infernal oil into her bike, ready to supercharge it. The engine revved a little, firing fire from the exhaust and a rain of ash. 

 

"So guys, anyone want a ride?"

[Ecalsneerg]

"There's a line here, but it isn't a dragon line," said Equinox quietly, cautiously stepping towards the bike and away from the watching presence. "It's running a current naturally, using the river's flow to shape the lay of the... well, ley. It's unstable, held together only by the current." She inclined her head. "Should be sourcing from the start of the river, up thereabouts."

 

The witch knelt to pick up Hayley. <Is the big thing still there?>

 

<Yep. Don't know if it's hostile though. It's just... watching.> Equinox turned to Pitch. "Let's go up there."

[trollthumper]

"Wait, hold on a second," said Nick, as he stepped closer to the remains of the specter. "Okay, the giant life snake just split back into its various parts, leaving us with... three kids. Three spectral children."

Man, I always love it when these things bust out the creepy kids...

Nick approached the children, keeping his eyes locked on them at all times. He tried to place the coppery taste in the air - was that blood? Was this the remains of some sacrifice? The one thing he hated more than not having all the pieces together was looking at all the horrible things those pieces he had might indicate.

Well, suppose there's no harm in trying... He cleared his throat. "Hi, there," he said to the kids. "Name's Nick. I've gotta say, that's a pretty cool stunt of yours. How'd you pull it off?"

[Ari]

GM

For an instant, the head watching Nick spiraled apart, revealing a panoply of life from every kingdom, every domain of biological existence, circling motionless human figure. One by one, the creatures and plants(and a few in between) gravitated towards the middle, until once again an amalgam of creation stared down at the necromancer.

A thin, silvery voice like tinkling bells spoke. "To control the lifeweb, even as little as this, took years. Years of forcing my mind to understand other ways of being so alien they can only be experienced. I don't reccomend trying it out unless you're already a spirit." Watching Equinox and Pitch roar off for the spring mouth, two of the heads slid off to follow them, the third remaining behind. The one watching Nick dropped slowly until it rested a little above head-height, adding dispassionately "My name is Springsvale. Why are you here?"

---

The road leading up to the water source was in passable repair, broad and light of other vehicles. The only obvious obstacle was a roadblock, a thin arm of yellow and black barring the road leading the way to distant Springwater Hill.

As they drew closer, it suddenly became very clear that the roadblock didn't have any support, or even an obvious start or end, just cutting off as it hit a nearby wall of red sandstone and the edge of the road. To the senses of the two mages, while outwardly unassuming, the thing thrummed with power.

Passing the motorcycle, a dusty car drove straight through the barricade without so much as hesitating on its way down to the sleepy suburb. The barrier shimmered briefly, but otherwise was wholly unmoved by the encounter.

[Supercape]

"Now that's a new one" said Pitch as she contemplated the barrier. 

 

"Not that I ever did care much for road blocks and so on" she said, her bike pulled to a stop but the engine revving in anticipation. 

 

"And those so called speed bumps are a joke. If anything, they make you go slower"

 

"If that car came down, I am guessing we can go up. That's just a mad guess though. Buckle up, Dorothy, its time to hit the road, and pray the road don't hit us back harder..." she determined, gritting her teeth. 

 

"Way I see it, we come this far, no damn fake road closed sign is going to stop us now, huh, I am right? or am I right!" she yelled to the wind and the rock and the river, before revving the engine once more, as infernal fuel powered into the Vehicle, infusing it with smoke and fire and power. 

 

And then, she sped towards the barrier. 

[trollthumper]

Well. Nick didn't know why he was so surprised. It wasn't like he hadn't encountered Doctor Metropolis before - or been tapped to do work for the city spirit. It made sense that other places would have their own genii loci. He guess he just hadn't thought one would be so... aware, for a town this small. This may be what happens when you spend too much time in the big city.

"Why I'm here? Well..." He gestured towards the gigantic dead snake back up the hill. "That may be one reason. There's also been talk of other weird phenomena going on in these parts..." He just remembered the bit Aqui had said about something being spotted up by the river mouth. "...one of which was likely you. But I'm pretty sure the invoked servitor of Yig isn't part of your character. Any idea why someone would think to summon one of these creepies here?"

[Ari]

GM

Equinox & Pitch

The wind whistled across the women's skins, tearing away most of the fierce heat of the dying desert day as they hurtled for the bizarrely-placed and remarkably inconsistent magic traffic block. As they approached this date with destiny, the road beneath them a ribbon of black banded in yellow and white, a heraldic flag of speed and freedom, the witch and the demon furnace felt the rush of glory stir in their hearts.

This rush did not fade as the motorcycle slammed headlong into an invisible wall and bounced away like a basketball, nor when the two magicians smashed into it themselves, feeling the odd sensation of their very being rejected and diverted even as the force propelling them passed through, and they were deposited in a heap on the still-warm tarmac, Hayley landing in a confused and frightened ball on Siobhan's head.

Then the rush of glory just turned into a splendid fountain of violence against inanimate and severely inconvenient mystic energy fields. Inside Carmen, Tazel was positively gibbering with a mixture of delight at his bearer's discomfiture and horror at the power before him. 'O Lady Cantos, mistress of the steel stallion, perhaps you might NOW consider getting us out of here. This is clearly far beyond our powers, and I am...sad...horrifi...dismayed by this kind of challenge falling on your weak shoulders. Get us out of here. At once.'

The bar of yellow and black stood above the pair, now looking more final than ever. A fly buzzed past Dr. Drake's ear, a small, lean thing that didn't bumble so much as dart through the air. Landing briefly to inspect the newcomers' ears, that mysterious objective eluding all its race contemptuously eluding it as well, the fly took off and performed a broad circle in the air, searching for a new scent, straining its antenna to the utmost before bumping into the wall itself, and being also sent to the road. Rising unsteadily, the thing began slowly to fly higher and higher, each time still thwarted by the unseeable barricade and robbed of its flight for a few seconds.

Nick

The voice(and lifesnake) paused. When the silver voice spoke again the words were meticulously chosen.

"I am a frequent site of incursions from other planes, creatures drawn here by the promise of...power. Many of them are antithetical to human life, like that daughter of Yig beneath my barrier, or would disrupt natural orders and destroy the prosperity of my-...me. So I watch for things that crawl between worlds, or are called here by those within me, and kill them."

"As for "why"...I can not say why the servants of the Fanged One would choose this place. People are curious that way, sometimes they do things merely because they can. If you have come to find a way to slow or stop the incursions, I welcome you. They bring nothing good to me."

Edited September 19, 2014 by Arichamus

[Supercape]

"Shoot" groaned Pitch, getting up slowly. 

 

"So much for speed and motor muscle" she commented whilst shouting at Tazel inside...

 

I ain't running from no fight, buster! So get with the programme!!!

 

"The barrier is letting people through. Let a damn car though. Just not us..." she said, trying to think it through. "What gives? Some kind of anti magic shell or something?" she asked the air and Equinox, without knowing what she was talking about. 

 

"I ain't ever seen something like that before...I ain't got no clue how to get past it either. Sorry for my rather...blunt, approach" she apologised to Equinox. "But, I just tend to go for the blunt approach first..."

 

To emphasise her point, she summoned a ball of fire into her hand and launched it at the barrier. 

[Ari]

GM

With a spectacular sizzling noise, the glob of Hellfire splashed against the barricade, splattering like spilled ink on an invisible wall before dissipating into a mere wavery film in the air and then vanishing totally.

'You see? Do you now understand? You have awakened a sleeping giant! Who knows what horrors it will now rain down upon us?! Oh the Demonity!' Despite Tazel's raving, however, nothing happened after Pitch's fiery assault. The out of place barrier remained fixed in air, the sun sank a little lower, and birds in the trees nearby began their twittering.

'Mistress, I have an idea' Tazel's voice oozed cunning 'Since this barrier resists anything physical that's bound to you, what if you used my power to...corrupt it a little? Bend the rules keeping it in place? I could do it, you know. Quite easily.'

Edited September 28, 2014 by Arichamus

[Supercape]

"Oh yeah thats a great idea. Let you corrupt the thing..." shouted Pitch aloud back, furious with herself. 

 

Still, it wasn't as if she had a lot of other cards on the table. The barrier was there, invincible in the face of hellfire and motorcycles both. If it was infernal, perhaps the Cantos Cane would have drained it. But as far as she could see, it wasn't. And with the Cane in her hand, she was pretty good at seeing demons and hellfire and infernal barriers twisting through the Arizona landscape. 

 

"This is gonna cost me, I know..." she said, angrily. Tazel was one for wicked tongues and malign corruption. 

 

She took a breath in, and blew the demon out of her belly, his arrival heralded by smoke and brimstone and the smell of sulphur pouring from her mouth. 

 

And then he was there, a flickering stew of flame, eyes, mouth and face burning away. 

[Ari]

GM

 

The inchoate monster of pure diabolism stretched up from the heated tarmac. With its eyes blazing with malice Tazel regarded the world around it, a note of fondness in its voice as the demon said "At last...it has been too long. The heat makes it almost like home." The ever-shifting features that Tazel used for its 'face' twisted towards the two mages nearby, and then at the mountains far away.

 

For an instant the thing tensed, the fire crackling a shade bluer and whirling closer than before. Then it was relaxed. "Not yet. A binding is a binding. But you, obstruction, are not so lucky." With that it materialized two arms from the wheeling mass of fire that was its body, the limbs reaching out and seeping across the invisible wall, flickering fingers curling around the mystical barricade as something began to give.

 

The wall before Pitch and Equinox warped and shuddered, flickering in and out of visibility to their enlightened senses as its very being was undermined, until with a final squish and something like a dying gasp, Tazel retreated with an air of triumph. "The wall should not trouble us anymore. Leave destruction to the lesser creatures, mistress" the demon advised Pitch as it sprang like quicksilver back into Canto's body, nestling back into its old, familiar spot 'to take away and yet leave standing, a mockery of what is was, that is far better'

 

Meanwhile...

 

The lifesnake shuddered, and another head leaned out to scan the plain below "Something of Inferna is at work down there. A shield is cracked."

Suddenly it looked suspiciously at Nick, innumerable life crowding up to glare, with eyes under spreading horns and above long jaws "Are you a distraction? I say again, the invaders are of no worth to me."

[Supercape]

I trust ya about as far as I could throw ya, and seein' as yer a ball of flame, that is just about zero. Still, I gotta say, that was good work, even if I'm pretty sure its gonna cost me later down the road, huh?

 

She didn't wait for an answer. She didn't really need one, or even want one.

 

"You get a demon to do something like that, you can bet your unholy ass its gonna bite you right on your unholy ass" she said to Equinox, with a mixture of warning and something approaching excitement. Crossing swords with demons was what she was good at. 

 

"But lets worry about that later. If you got a spell of banishment or something, keep it on the tip of your tongue" she advised as she hauled up the Motorbike once more, and filled it with infernal fuel. 

 

"Lets go into the mouth of the beast!"

 

And with that, she kicked the motorcycle into ignition and sped on...

[trollthumper]

Nick listened to the great spirit's words. It made sense that such a shining font of power would draw some of the scum of the multiple planes to this small town, especially if it appeared undefended. But that was the big part there - they weren't necessarily coming here uninvited. That led to the next question...

"You're doing one hell of a job on the vigilance front. I'm kinda wondering what other things have tried to barge their way into town. But, like you said, they didn't really come here uninvited. Which I guess means that they aren't the only ones to try to take advantage of the font of power. Did you get any good looks of the summoners? Or did they turn and run the second they saw their great war engines were torn to shreds?"

[Ari]

GM

 

There was a considerable gap between the end of Nick's question, and the lifesnake's answer. In that silence, the light of the Unconquered Sun rained down like a shining torrent, invisible save at the corner of the eye as the fleeting messengers dashed themselves against the ground, shattering into droplets eagerly seized by the formless mass of the forest spirit surrounding the necromancer and town entity. At last the 'head' receded its more complex members, plankton and hypothetical bacteria clustering in their place as the arm of existence bent down to speak.

 

"Thank you. But I am afraid I have not seen the summoners. I think there is a...cabal. In me. They call up these things to test me, tempted with the promise of power. My power."

 

The coil of life twisted a little.

 

"it is nothing I cannot deal with. They must reside within me, and unless they want to draw my attention they'll stick to the small fry." More of the lifesnake descended into the river, leaving a slim fraction of what had first eyed the gathered mages "Besides, the more they summon the stronger I get. Dimensional energies like that sustain me-"

 

Suddenly it paused again, regarding Nick carefully. A sense of unease, like it was walking on a plank over a white river, seeped through the mingled odors of construction, lazy life and monotony.

 

Meanwhile

 

With the barrier behind them there was nothing to stop Equinox and Pitch from heading uphill to the springwater's source, a small lake fed by the water table further uphill.

 

As they approached, both could feel something tingle in the air, and as Pitch's hell-powered motorcycle rounded the final bend, and the water lay before them, the source was plain to see.

 

A crystal coffin lay at the bottom of the clear, swift-flowing lake. it was covered in sigils, none readily decipherable, and looking at it felt like your eye was trying to do push-ups. It was rare that something looked as magical as the coffin did. The sparse trees surrounding the lake bent slightly towards it, as if offering homage. The air above it buzzed with insects and flashing birds, the water teemed with fish, and the soft calls of the living world began to tentatively rejoin their chorus as the infernal engine abated its roar.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Arichamus

[Supercape]

"Now, do you know what on earth, or what on anywhere, that is?" said Pitch to Equinox, feeling giddy from just looking at the coffin. It was beautiful, in its own way. 

 

"A crystal coffin...in a lake...in the source of water...in the source of life. Well, I do actually read a few books as well as hang out with Rock stars. And, y'know, poetry and all that. And, y'know I do write..." she said, one hand on hip, one on the Cantos Cane, as she kicked off the Motorcycle Engine. 

 

"If that ain't a juxtaposition, I don't know what is. A coffin in a well of light and water. Death in life. Huh...I guess its dangerous. But then, I guess pretty much everything is dangerous. And you know what? I kinda like it that way!" she explained to Equinox. 

 

"Anyways, I'd rather ask you what was written on their than my little silver tongued demon..."

[trollthumper]

There was something about the spirit's words that tripped Nick's internal deception meter. The spirit was a mighty conglomeration, the accumulation of all sorts of life that could be found in the area... but some of the shapes seemed a little large for local fauna. In fact, lurking behind a large accumulation of coyotes and condors, there was a gigantic snake, far too big and far too strange to be an exaggeration of the local serpents. In fact, there seemed to be a hint of Yig to the creature...

"I don't think that's the only thing about the summonings that sustains you," he said. "I can understand why you'd want to pick up some more ephemeral firepower, but I've got a feeling eating things like a child of Yig might disagree with the spiritual digestion."

[Ari]

GM

With a resigned sigh, the lifesnake grudgingly let the ghostly remains of the Serpent's lifeforce slide further up its 'head'. "It does take some...chewing to get rid of the tyranny and fear, but divine power is divine power, no matter what skin-shedding the divinity might do. Helps me keep things vibrant around here if I snatch up the trespassers instead of just blasting them back where they come from. That and I just like sticking it to the cult living in me. Everything they do to weaken me just makes me stronger." A dry amusement crept into its mental voice, and for a flickering moment the lifesnake appeared to share a normal creature's wavering unsteadiness.

Regaining its uncanny stillness, the being regarded Nick "So, you know what happened to the child of Yig, and you know why it appeared. If you decide to remove the cult, I can give you a hint of how to find them, as per the standard. They're useful to me, but they are dangerous to my citizens. But if I might give you some advice first, don't attack this close to night."

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox focused, looking upon the runes and energy flow surrounding the coffin. Then took a step back, awe on her face.

 

<What is it?>

 

"This..." said Equinox slowly. "This is something big. And old." She waved a hand at the runes on the coffin. "I can't actually read them, but I can get the gist of them, and it just... directs ley lines, moving energy around to levels that the land just can't manage in and of itself. I think it might even be drawing in power from other lines even as it fuels the local ones." She turned to look at her biker companion.

 

"This is a lot of energy. There used to be a way, apparently, to give up your life to become energy, fuelling the local life forces. But it wouldn't explain this, unless a lot of lives were given up to that effect..."

[Supercape]

"Damn, that's some funky stuff" said Pitch as Equinox explained it to her. "I don't know half of what you said, but I get the whole Ley Line and Life Vibe..." she confessed. A bit out of her field of experience though. All that Wicca and Druid stuff, she guessed. Most Rock Bands went in for Satanism and Sorcery, but there was enough of a melting pot to get the gist. 

 

"I guess we need a closer look. And, I am guessing that coffin is a Gordian knot. I hope you are good at untying it, otherwise I'm gonna split it in two and have a look at whatever is in it" she grinned. 

 

Fire me up Tazel!

 

Once again the demon exploded in her gut, filling her with smoke and flame and sulphur, her clothes became studded, her eyes glowed. 

 

"Unless you can freeze water, it's swimming time..." she guessed. At least Tazel would keep her warm. She waded in knee deep, ready to plunge in. Steam fizzed around her smoking body. 

[trollthumper]

"All right, then," said Nick. "I'll make sure --" It was then that the penny dropped. This place sat on a nexus of magical energy, and was fairly close to a place with a reputation for being a gateway between worlds. Places like that were always... off at certain times, times that represented a gateway being opened. Eclipses, equinoxes, solstices, and, of course, night falls. And given the pattern to the summonings as of late... 

 

Nick pulled out his phone and dialed Equinox's number. "Hey, Equinox," he said. "Listen, knowing us, this may be a bad time for you, but the big giant snake that is Springsvale has sussed out where our erstwhile summoners may be. And they may be getting into formation. It's sundown, we're sitting on a big pile of mojo, and they may - scratch that, probably will - take advantage of the thinness of worlds to try to pull something out of the gibbering depths. So, yeah. We may want to keep our eyes open for things with too many eyes." 

[Ari]

GM

The water hissing and bubbling around her, Pitch faced relatively little opposition as she made her slow way into the little lake.

The coffin remained where it was, the fish darted put of Carmen's path, and only the weeds bent around her ankles, trying feebly to halt her slow, remorseless swim.

Up close, the coffin made the water around it tingle electrically. It was semi- transparent, with the dim form of a human-like figure inside. At an accidental brush of her hand, Carmen found it to be surprisingly warm, and far lighter than a chunk of crystal that size usually managed to be. It was just light enough to feel distinctly unreal, ephemeral. Like it was a mere image of the coffin's otherworldly reality. Regardless, it would be easy to move.

The figure within lay as if mummified, arms crossed over their chest, a tangle of dark hair around their head.